Fracking is Pitting OPEC Members Against Each Other. It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Bunch of Cartel Members.
Venezuela, Iran, and others, desperately need high oil prices. But the more powerful members of OPEC don't seem willing to go along.
Iraq Minister: Shale to have Minimal Effect on Oil Demand
http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/126787/Iraq_Minister_Shale_to_have_Minimal_Effect_on_Oil_Demand
by Dow Jones Newswires|Hassan Hafidh|Thursday, May 30, 2013
Rising U.S. shale oil production will have only minimal effect on demand for crude oil from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, meaning most members of the group want to leave their output ceiling unchanged at 30 million barrels a day, said Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaiby Thursday.
OPEC members will discuss the selection criteria for choosing a new Secretary General at its meeting Friday and Iraq’s candidate for the job, Thamer Ghadban, is still standing, Mr. Luaiby told reporters at a briefing in Vienna.
Excerpted for Dow Jones content
The wild card is the possibility of a growing number of vehicles in this country running either on natural gas alone or on gasoline or natural gas. Natural gas filling stations are being installed in WV along the I-79 corridor. Given the extremely low price of natural gas and the high price of oil, some reduction in demand for gasoline and by extension oil is going to happen. If it significantly decreases the US demand for oil, currently about 25% of the worlds, production, the Middle East is going to be scrambling for petrodollars. The cartel is toast although the article’s author missed the most dangerous threat to OPEC.
I just hope the SOB’s have to feel the pain we Americans have felt due to their extortionist priceing schemes.
Let the OPEC members eat their oil.
...delegates have already hinted that the asymmetric impact of the shale revolution on OPEC’s member countries has weakened the bloc’s resolve and will mean no agreement on curbing supply.
That’s because US shale oil is pitting African members against Arab members. The new American oil bounty is of the light, sweet crude variety. It’s higher quality than the heavy crude produced by Gulf OPEC members. But countries like Nigeria, Algeria, and Angola have typically exported sweet crude to the US, and the shale boom is hitting them hardest. Exports from those African members dropped 41 percent from 2011 to 2012.
OPEC Is Cracking…
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/05/29/opec-is-cracking/
Why are they holding their meeting in Vienna?
Oh, that’s right, they have liquor there. Nevermind.
Aramco is not very well run because of the Saudis. It is very well run because of the American engineers and financial people they hire to run it for them.
FWIW, Aramco is an anacronym for Arab-American Oil Company. They actually have their own city in the Eastern Province where women are allowed to drive and American and other foreign employees are free to live their own lives with minimal Saudi interference.
Your typical mid-sized and larger company in Saudi Arabia actually has very few Saudi employees. Almost all of them fall into one of two categories: (a)a government minder who is there to collect a paycheck due to some connection or (b)a rare bird who got their education in the west and has real ability to perform the job. Those in category (b) tend to be far less rigid idealogically and less trusted by the Saudi establishment. They are also the reason why the Saudi establishment floods certain western universities with their own idealogues, a task which is often fruitless because those with real ability tend to "go western" on them whereas those without tend to "go terrorist."